Don’t Believe Everything on the Internet

Tilden Moschetti’s San Francisco Family Law Blog had an interesting post showing an example of how inaccurate internet reporting on legal subjects can create a lot of misinformation. The underlying story was about comedian Steve Harvey’s divorce and the later claim by his ex-wife that she had been defrauded during the divorce process. While I don’t claim to know much about the details of that particular case, I do have some thoughts on Sharon Woodson-Bryant’s (the original author) statements on Texas family law, as reported in the Los Angeles Wave on January 3, 2008.

Ms. Woodson-Bryant’s premise is that Texas courts are generally very biased against women. A whole lot of Texas men wish that were the case, but it is just not true. Ms. Woodson-Bryant’s article stated that since Texas was not a community property state (false) that Mrs. Harvey would not be able to get 50% of the property like she could in California.

The reality is that not only is Texas a community property state, but unlike California the division of property is not automatically 50/50. In fact, Texas wives and moms frequently get disproportionate divisions of the community property (sometimes 60% or more) based on fault, needs of the children, disparity of earning capacity, etc.

Scott Morgan is Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He has practiced family law since 1994 and is the founder of the Morgan Law Firm which is dedicated exclusively to representing divorce and family law clients in the Houston and Austin areas.